Make your Dream JRPG in Unreal Engine 5!
What this Masterclass will teach you
This course incorporates years of research into Paper 2D and making 2D/3D Hybrid games in Unreal Engine to deliver you the full package!
Not only will you learn how to implement Turn Based RPG Combat through Blueprint Visual Scripting, but we'll also implement the field phase with your party exploring the map, talking to NPCs and picking up treasure chests.
Making a 3D Main Menu, Inventory system and an elaborate Save/Load system will also be covered during later chapters of the course and everything is set up in a way so you can expand upon this project to build your Dream JRPG.
Top Down Characters
Set up the movement for our characters in the field phase, using the free PaperZD plugin to set up the multi-directional animations.
Also learn how to make the other party members follow the leader on the map.
Turn Based Battle
Create a battle manager blueprint that handles spawning the characters for both teams, takes care of the turn order and also moves characters forward and backward on the battle field.
User Interface
Use best practices and create modular and reusable UI elements, also known as Widgets.
Learn how to create UI animations, update values such as the health and mana and how UI navigation works.
Battle Skills
Learn how to create different battle skills for each character.
This includes AOE attacks that damage the entire enemy team and also heal spells that restore health to your party.
Version Control (Git)
Learn a super simple setup for version control with Git and Github Desktop to take ownership over your project files and protect them in case something happens to your pc or local project files.
RPG Game Design
I provide multiple graphs and additional graphics to break down the flow of combat and we will slowly expand upon our damage formula throughout this course, teaching you the fundamentals of RPG game design.
Blueprint Visual Scripting
We'll use Unreal Engine's Blueprint Visual Scripting throughout this course which allows us to create game logic with a node based system.
This means you won't have to write a single line of code.
2D Sprite Animation
Our game will be a 2D/3D Hybrid using Paper 2D sprites for the characters and 3D models for the environment to create a stunning look.
To improve the sprite based workflow we'll use the free PaperZD plugin for our party members.
And Much More...
You'll learn so much in this course that there's no way for me to list it all up here!
View the entire chapter overview further down the page to get a full breakdown.
Learn from an Authorized Unreal Engine Instructor
I've been recognized by Epic Games as a Gold Level Authorized Unreal Engine Instructor, verifying that I meet their high standards for lesson development, instruction and technical skills.
In addition I've also been featured at multiple Unreal Fest presentations and created an official course for their Artstation Learning platform.
Meet your Instructor, Cobra Code
Hey, I'm Cobra Code!
I've been in love with games and computers since my early childhood and studied Game Development in Japan.
I worked as a professional Game Programmer and Software Engineer in the past and started the Cobra Code YouTube channel in 2021 to share my knowledge.
My main focus is on teaching how to make 2D and 2D/3D Hybrids in Unreal Engine using Paper 2D and PaperZD!
What People say about Cobra Code
These are some testimonials from my other courses
Full Curriculum
- 1. About the Unreal Engine 5 Crash Course (1:11)
- 2. How to Install Unreal Engine 5 (2:16)
- 3. How to Create a New Project (2:22)
- 4. How to Navigate the Editor (13:37)
- 5. Content Drawer and Blueprints (8:30)
- 6. How to Make a Simple Blueprint (4:50)
- 7. Adding Functionality to our Blueprint (24:11)
- 8. Useful Keyboard Shortcuts and Tips (3:22)
- 9. How to Debug Your Game (4:19)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (1:17)
- 2. Setting Up the Project (15:29)
- 3. Setting Up Version Control (8:45)
- 4. An Introduction to OOP and Inheritance (8:56)
- 5. Making the Character Blueprint (14:43)
- 6. Camera and Character Possession (14:24)
- 7. Inputs and Character Movement (19:05)
- 8. Animation Source and Animation Sequence (5:28)
- 9. Animation Blueprint and Directionality (17:56)
- 10. FOV and Depth of Field (7:30)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (0:58)
- 2. Preparing the Battle Animations (11:56)
- 3. Battle Character Blueprints (9:14)
- 4. Battle Manager Blueprint (14:08)
- 5. An Introduction to Arrays (5:44)
- 6. Spawning Battle Characters (28:07)
- 7. Turn Order and Active Character (20:19)
- 8. Moving Active Character to Active Location (19:30)
- 9. Moving Back on Turn End (7:03)
- 10. Battle Camera Sway (11:09)
- 11. Moving Battle to Different Level (13:01)
- 12. Going From Battle Back to Field (23:10)
- 13. Using a Struct for the FieldPosition (10:35)
- 14. Using an Interface on the GameInstance (21:08)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (1:09)
- 2. UI Widget Introduction (17:13)
- 3. Making our Fullscreen UI (11:26)
- 4. Displaying the Turn Order (14:12)
- 5. Using Data Assets and Showing Character Portrait (19:56)
- 6. Dynamically Updating the Turn Order Display (6:41)
- 7. Displaying Health and Mana (9:21)
- 8. Pushing Values to Health and Mana Panels (25:00)
- 9. Animating HP Panel for Active Character (7:23)
- 10. Making a Modular and Reusable Button (13:28)
- 11. Making the Action Menu (14:05)
- 12. UI Navigation and its Issues (10:23)
- 13. Showing the Target Pointer (23:17)
- 14. Setting Up the BattleNav Input (9:57)
- 15. Cycling Through Targets (11:19)
- 16. Ending Target Mode (3:31)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (1:13)
- 2. Player Attack Action (13:55)
- 3. Sprite Shake on Damage (16:05)
- 4. Apply Attack Effect (9:47)
- 5. Enemies Attacking the Player (11:51)
- 6. Adjusting the Game Speed (3:50)
- 7. Adding the Defend State (8:45)
- 8. Handling Character Attributes and State (16:17)
- 9. Damaging Battle Characters (13:14)
- 10. Knocking Out Enemies (24:30)
- 11. Knocking Out Party Members (8:29)
- 12. Deciding Battle Outcome (7:24)
- 13. Victory Screen Stub (9:23)
- 14. Notifications and Losing the Battle (10:02)
- Small Bug in Next Video 15. Fleeing the Battle
- 15. Fleeing the Battle (11:24)
- 16. Making Global Variables (19:03)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (1:16)
- 2. An Introduction to Materials and Highlight Pick (19:47)
- 3. An Introduction to Niagara and Particle Effects (2:29)
- 4. Making the Glowworm Particle Effect (17:44)
- 5. Making the Enemy Attack Particle Effect (14:29)
- 6. Spawning the Attack Particle in Game (4:54)
- 7. Making the Player Attack Particle Effect (7:32)
- 8. Creating Skill Data (7:37)
- 9. Using Skill Data for Particle Effect and Damage (14:57)
- 10. Show Skill Name (3:34)
- 11. Set Chromatic Aberration (8:39)
- 12. Floating Damage Numbers (16:13)
- 13. Styling the Combat Text (6:41)
- 14. Calculating Defense Stats (19:36)
- 15. Calculating Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier (20:43)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (1:46)
- 2. Allow Multi Targeting Enemies (19:35)
- 3. Allow Enemies to Multi Target Party (5:29)
- 4. Enabling and Disabling the Skill Button (6:38)
- 5. Showing the Skill Menu (14:34)
- 6. Populating the Skills Menu (8:41)
- 7. Executing Skills (14:03)
- 8. Playing the Correct Skill Animations (10:03)
- 9. Making the Cleave Skill (7:59)
- 10. Making the Mage’s Fire Skill (8:23)
- 11. Targeting Friendly Units (7:28)
- 12. Enabling Skills to Restore Health (9:04)
- 13. Using God Rays (5:14)
- 14. Creating the Heal Skills (7:19)
- 15. Mana Usage (14:46)
- 16. Battle Camera Target (22:48)
- 17. Preparing the Battle Transition Widget (11:11)
- 18. Triggering the Battle Transition Animation (13:18)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (1:35)
- 2. Field Versions of New Characters (11:28)
- 3. Creating the Follower Blueprint (3:23)
- 4. Spawning Party Members (20:02)
- 5. Party Member Index and Z-Fighting (8:07)
- 6. Saving the FieldPlayer’s Movement History (12:54)
- 7. Making Party Members Follow (21:15)
- 8. Follower Animations (14:54)
- 9. Field Area Detection (21:21)
- 10. UI for Area Transitions (16:48)
- 11. Using the Forest Battle Map (12:09)
- 12. Encounter Combat Level Data (16:03)
- 13. Encounter Enemy Data (18:45)
- 14. Using the Actual Party Members in Battle (5:20)
- 15. Triggering Random Encounters (15:08)
- 16. Saving HP and MP Throughout Battles (21:38)
- 17. Handling Defeated Members in Battle (8:01)
- 18. Handling Defeated Members in Field (9:06)
- 19. Designing the Forest Field Map (21:17)
- Bugfix 1: 6-15 Fleeing the Battle (5:18)
- 20. You Finished the Core Module! (1:45)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (2:35)
- 2. Item Button Widget (8:45)
- 3. Item List Widget (8:27)
- 4. Item Data (6:57)
- 5. Making the Inventory (14:39)
- 6. Picking the Item Target (14:18)
- 7. Removing Used Items (19:24)
- 8. Inventory Empty Message (6:22)
- 9. Playing the Item Animation (7:23)
- 10. Creating Health Potion Variants (4:06)
- 11. Adding Items to the Inventory (7:21)
- 12. Treasure Chest Blueprint (15:19)
- 13. Interaction Trace (10:49)
- 14. Interaction Interface (8:09)
- 15. Saving Unique Chest Identifier (14:04)
- 16. Checking Triggered IDs (10:02)
- 17. Enforcing ID Uniqueness (21:45)
- 18. Item Drops from Enemy Encounters (11:05)
- 19. Showing Item Drops (12:24)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (2:03)
- 2. Gaining XP from Enemies (12:12)
- 3. Applying the Level Up (13:10)
- 4. Gaining Multiple Levels in One Fight (15:38)
- 5. Making the XPDisplay Widget (10:47)
- 6. Preparing Data for XP Widget (9:40)
- 7. Showing Initial Data on the XPDisplay Widget (9:19)
- 8. Counting Up Gained XP (15:59)
- 9. Counting Up Level Changes (12:13)
- 10. Considering Max Level in Count Up (9:29)
- 11. Applying Attribute Increases by Level (14:17)
- 12. Unlocking Skills at Certain Levels (11:54)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (2:02)
- 2. Creating a Save Point (15:25)
- 3. Making the Save Slot Widget (18:38)
- 4. Saving Data (16:31)
- 5. Saving to Different Slots from Menu (10:12)
- 6. Populating Save Slot Display with Real Data (33:47)
- 7. Dynamically Update Save Data Display (5:18)
- 8. Showing Empty Save Slots through Widget Switcher (9:56)
- 9. Prompt Widget Layout (10:32)
- 10. Override Save Logic (13:20)
- 11. Loading the Game State (14:07)
- 12. Show Load Screen when Defeated (7:11)
- 13. Setting up the Main Menu Scene (12:19)
- 14. Creating the Main Menu UI (11:20)
- 15. Creating the Pause Menu (11:44)
- 1. What You’ll Learn in this Chapter (1:39)
- 2. Updating PaperZD and Importing Assets (14:53)
- 3. Making a Field NPC (15:07)
- 4. Creating the Speech Bubble Widget (11:21)
- 5. Positioning the Dialogue Widget (9:46)
- 6. Locking Characters While Speaking (14:22)
- 7. Implementing UI Transitions for Dialogue (9:01)
- 8. Showing Speaker Name (7:48)
- 9. Pulling Dialogue from Data Tables (12:06)
- 10. Accessing the Next Row (17:07)
- 11. Importing Table from CSV (6:11)
- 12. Making the NPC Join Blueprint (12:44)
- 13. Spawning Follower After Dialogue (15:13)
- 14. Unique IDs for NPC Events (11:00)
Satisfaction Guaranteed
If for some reason the course isn't a good fit for you, you can get your money back within 30 days from the purchase.
No questions asked.
Just email me *directly at cobracode.info@gmail.com with your receipt.
(*Do NOT use Teachable's built in email function, since these land in my spam folder)
Early Access Pricing
The course is currently in Early Access with the first 10 Chapters and 23 Hours of video footage already being released.
These 6 additional chapters are estimated to be added one by one between January and March 2026.
If you buy now you'll of course get access to these lessons as they release and after all chapters are available the price of the course will go up significantly!
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need prior experience or knowledge?
I designed the course in a way that even somebody who has never used Unreal Engine or has never programmed can easily follow along.
For absolute beginners I included the "Unreal Engine 5 Crash Course" chapter to get you up to speed and this course will take you from a complete beginner level all the way up to becoming an advanced game developer.
How is this course different?
This is my first masterclass/premium level course, which puts it on a completely different level from my other Udemy courses.
Over 4 years of research and 9 months of daily grinding lead to the realization of this course and focusing specifically on JRPGs allowed me to go much deeper with mechanics and project architecture and also enabled me to spend time drawing unique pixel art for these lessons.
Does the course come with finished project files?
No, this course doesn't come with the finished project files since that would prevent me from offering a 30-day-money back guarantee and lead to issues with piracy.
The point of this course is for you to follow along and learn all the skills required for you to make an RPG on your own, but it does come with a starter project and source files for the pixel art.
Do we use PaperZD?
Yes, we do use the highly praised PaperZD plugin which is an Epic Mega Grant Recipient and freely available.
It allows us to handle multi directional animations for the top down characters much simpler and also anim notify events on our battle characters.
Over the years I've become friends with the creator, HeavyBullets, and we don't have to fear the plugin becoming outdated or delisted.
But Battle Enemies don't need complicated animation managing and will be driven by base Paper 2D only.
Do the videos have Subtitles?
Yes, all videos come with English Closed Captions and auto-generated subtitles in Spanish (Español), Korean (한국어), Japanese (日本語), French (Français) and Portuguese (Português - Brazil)
Do I need to code (C++) to take this course?
No, we'll use Unreal Engine's Blueprint Visual Scripting system throughout the entire course which allows us to put together the game logic and UI logic through a node based interface.
You don't have to write a single line of code.
Do we use the Gameplay Ability System (GAS)?
No, this course doesn't use GAS.
While it can be a great system if used correctly it has a steep learning curve and requires C++.
It would also shift the focus of the course away from teaching you how to make a JRPG to "How to use Gas" and making our own lightweight system from scratch makes a lot more sense than using a behemoth like GAS which we cannot fully understand and quite frankly don't need.
AFAIK titles like Octopath Traveler, Live A Live and the Dragon Quest Remakes also don't use GAS and roll their own custom systems like we will.
How long will I have access to this course?
With the purchase you get lifetime access to the course and all future updates are included.
Even if many years down the line something happens to Teachable, which is the site this course is hosted on, I'll find some other way to provide you access to these videos.
Can I get my money back if I'm not satisfied?
Yes, there's a 30-day money back guarantee with no questions asked!
If it turns out that the course isn't right for you, then email me *directly at cobracode.info@gmail.com with your receipt.
(*Do NOT use Teachable's built in email function, since these land in my spam folder)
Does this teach me EVERYTHING I could possibly want to know about making JRPGs?
No, game development is very complex and time intensive and teaching something takes 10 times as long as just making it.
The course needs to balance runtime with complexity to keep students engaged and we can't possibly cover EVERYTHING.
However, you'll learn much more than just the essentials of party based, turn based JRPGs and I'll also teach you the way of thinking necessary to customize the project and expand upon it by adding your own game mechanics and new characters.